TikTok stars, banned in India, find it difficult to rebuild their reputation on other platforms
After the Indian Sahil Kumar, an amateur choreographer, gained fame by broadcasting his videos on TikTok, he has problems since the Chinese application was banned in India, to regain success on other social media networks, according to Agence France-Presse.
American platforms such as YouTube and Instagram benefited from the ban on TikTok in India, to which a large number of fans of the banned Chinese platform used to republish their content.
Users who gained a certain fame through TikTok had to start from scratch on other sites.
“It takes years to build an audience on Instagram or YouTube,” Kumar, 30, told Agence France-Presse in his studio in Rohtak, a few kilometers south of New Delhi.
The choreographer, whose TikTok account is followed by 1.5 million users, says: “It is difficult to achieve success again, because I do not find the same interaction on high- any other floor. “
Kumar is originally an engineer, but quit his job after he started earning money by posting videos of dances by Indian influencers and celebrities on TikTok.
But his new career came to an end in June 2020 once the Chinese claim disappeared from India’s view, after the government banned him because it believed he was responsible for actions that “prejudicing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”
Two weeks before that, a border conflict took place in the Himalayas, the bloodiest in fifty years between India and China. Twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers died as a result.
The end of TikTok in India was then announced, so Kumar posted his last video on the platform asking users to follow him on YouTube and Instagram, adding loving phrases to his words. “India first,” he said.
“everything fell down”
Four years later, around 94,000 followers followed him on Instagram, while his career as a dancer took off. “Work has stopped,” he said.
TikTok quickly became a huge success in India. The platform reveals that the number of users in this country has exceeded 200 million people, or one in seven.
Viraj Sheth, co-founder of marketing agency Monk Entertainment, says, “An influencer or celebrity looking for an audience on the internet has to use TikTok, whether they like it or not . “
He said: “As soon as the TikTok ban was announced, everything fell apart for everyone. “
A large number of emerging local technology companies tried to take advantage of TikTok’s ban by launching applications of their own innovation. But the two big American companies still dominate in this area.
In the first year after the ban, approximately six million short video clips “Reels” were broadcast daily on Instagram.
For comparison, 2.5 million video clips were published daily on the Indian Moj platform, according to local media.
Statista, a company specialized in collecting data and statistics from the market, reveals that more than 362 million people in India use Instagram, and the number of users is 462 million. will use YouTube, which launched the feature of short video clips to compete with TikTok, in the year The Chinese platform was banned in India.
Redser Strategy Consultants explains that in November 2023, local applications had a total base of more than 250 million users.
“YouTube and Instagram have always dominated when it comes to short video clips,” said Amiya Swarup, head of marketing consultancy at EY India.
However, not all TikTok fans feel comfortable using Instagram. Because this platform focuses on self-promotion and not on creating unique content, according to Viraj Sheth.
He says: “The user does not need to show his personality on TikTok.”
